Metropolis‘s Top Design Moments at NYCxDesign

Rosie Li Booth at ICFF
Brooklyn-based lighting designer Rosie Li launched her latest collection at ICFF, installing a striking desert-style, muted earth–tone exhibition booth that brought together furniture from Bowen Liu and Souda and wall art from Caroline Watkins. Li's lighting works, including the Yucatan-inspired Inez collection (available as a chandelier, floor lamp, or sconce) and the branching Laurel Blossom, play on features of the natural world. "We wanted to create the feeling of an indoor/ outdoor setting, to tie back into our focus on nature with the new lighting collection," Li says. —Akiva Blander

Launch Pad at Wanted Design
The sixth anniversary of the Launch Pad program at WantedDesign Manhattan presented a strong group of emerging talent in the fields of furniture and lighting—including Soft Geometry, the design studio of San Jose-based Utharaa L Zacharias and Palaash Chaudhary. —Katie Okamoto

Istanbul Design Collective at WantedDesign Manhattan
Designed and curated by architects Koray Duman and Fusun Eczacibasi, this booth showcased some of the best of Istanbul's contemporary design, both emerging and established, and across a range of media. The designs tapped into the famous local craftsmanship of Istanbul, while also leaving room for experimentation. Participating glass artist Feleksan Onar, among others, emphasized quality material and time-honored execution techniques at an associated event at Herman Miller's Manhattan flagship. —AB

Zero Waste Bistro at WantedDesign Manhattan
Anybody who cares about sustainability in the hospitality business knows that about one-third of all the food that is produced worldwide goes to waste. So haute cuisine concepts based on food recycling and reducing waste have been popping up all over the world. The Finnish Cultural Institute brought a version from its home country to Wanted Design this month—the Zero Waste Bistro. Based on the groundbreaking Helsinki restaurant Nolla, the bistro served up a three-course tasting menu on fully repulpable dinnerware in a hauntingly beautiful environment designed by Linda Bergroth and constructed mainly of recycled Tetrapak board. —Avinash Rajagopal

Together: Nordic Design at Snøhetta
Toward the end of NYCxDESIGN, the renowned Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta opened Togetherat their New York offices in the Financial District. The exhibition showcased 26 furniture and accessory brands from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. While the individual designs, manufacturers, and national design cultures are distinct, the exhibition also served to highlight some commonalities that characterize the region's popular aesthetic of clean geometries, subdued colors, and functional construction. Standouts included the Hedwig chair from Swedish brand Gärsnäs (pictured), Rodeo's Rodeo chair, and Vestre's April Go chair. —AB

Tom Dixon SoHo Showroom
Just in time for New York design week, British designer Tom Dixon unveiled his new SoHo digs at 25 Greene Street. The sprawling, 6,700-square-foot flagship nods to the industrial aesthetic of Dixon's new Kings Cross, London, studio and showroom, but maintains a distinctly Lower Manhattan flair, juxtaposing the building's original cast-iron columns against dark timber flooring. Dixon says he wanted to diverge from the typical "dusty furniture shop," so filled the two-floor store with geometric display modules, made from tough materials, and floated jewel-like pendants from his various lighting collections above. Furnishings and design consulting rooms, meanwhile, can be found downstairs. The opening coincided with the launch of a new collection, "The Blue, The Black, and The Silver," a collection of objects with ultra-glossy stainless finishes (inspired in part by the aesthetics of sex shops, Dixon says), in addition to a new series of bathroom lighting called "Hot + Wet." —Anna Fixsen

No Taste for Bad Taste
At ICFF, the No Taste for Bad Taste exhibition—a collaboration between VIA, the Institut français, and Jean Charles de Castelbaja—provided an enjoyable detour through 40 '"cult" objects of French design. The traveling exhibition organized the pieces into 10 essential design values such as "Panache" (pictured). —KO

The Coast at Collective Concept
Either/Or, the award-winning debut lamp from multiscalar design studio The Coast, invites interaction. A light touch sets the whimsical form rocking gently back and forth, and can also dim the brightness on the tabletop version. —KO

Central Saint Martins at WantedDesign Brooklyn
A welcome surprise at WantedDesign Brooklyn were the projects coming from Central Saint Martins' stand Product Ceramic and Industrial Design program in London. The works, which all demonstrated an emphasis on sustainability and accessibility, ran the gamut of form and function. Wearable technology (such as Gicky Guan's project, pictured) was juxtaposed with funky furniture designs and even transportation concepts—all reflecting some current interests and discourses. —AB

RIT at WantedDesign Brooklyn
Textile and industrial design students from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) also exhibited at WantedDesign Brooklyn. Each of the projects on display was characterized by their functionality and readiness for larger-scale production. Designs for maternity-support devices, cycling jackets, and sporting attire reflected the students' sincere attention to pragmatically solving common issues. In addition to these prototypes, students in the school's Interior Design department presented their proposed renovation and redesign of a wing in Honduras's busiest public hospital. Interdisciplinary projects of the "Hope for Honduras" initiative include mobile education units, neonatal intra-hospital transport units, and skin-to-skin incubation mother-care devices, all of which are in various stages of development and realization. —AB

Country Pavilions at WantedDesign Manhattan
The country pavilions are always a highlight of WantedDesign. For example, pieces at the Mexico pavilion spanned drinking vessels for traditional beverages by La Tlapaleria, a student collective, to these evocative BO Lamps by Bandido Studio (pictured). —KO

Kalon and East Fork Pottery at Calliope
Kalon, the Los Angeles–based furniture company founded by Johannes Pauwen and Michaele Simmering, displayed their newest collection, Bough, at the West Village boutique Calliope. The precise, craft-driven nature of the line was on full view: The designers even showed off an "exploded" joint to help illustrate the furniture's construction. Along with Bough, which comprises a solid-ash bench, a stool, and a sprawling farm table, visitors could also glimpse the latest glazes from East Fork Pottery. —Lila Allen

Play in Motion with Rodger Stevens at kinder MODERN
American wire sculptor Rodger Stevens's kinetic brass creations were an unexpected delight during NYCxDesign. On view in kinder MODERN'ssmall sunlit gallery, Stevens's line-driven works made the compelling case that playthings and art can be one and the same. —KO